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Our style of doing business is successful, not only in New Zealand, but also acts as a recipe for success in other countries, and earnings from outside New Zealand will come to dominate Mainfreight’s future.
Mainfreight’s competitive advantages remain consistent – first and foremost, quality. A unified group of companies offering full supply chain logistics services, an infrastructure and culture that promotes individual responsibility, entrepreneurialism, the avoidance of mediocrity; coupled with our technology and passion for freight.
Strong leadership and commitment in each of our businesses will continue to drive growth and success for our company.
Mainfreight’s New Zealand operations will remain very important and we are far from having reached maturity in this market.
Mainfreight’s Australian domestic operations turned in a positive net surplus for the first time in the 2006 financial year, and there are major opportunities for growth from within our combined Australian customer base.
Industry consolidation is providing many opportunities as customers continue to search for the best service alternatives. We continue to research potential acquisitions in the US, as well as seeking land to develop larger facilities.
The US business also provides an important gateway for Mainfreight to access the developing South American and ready access to the large European markets.
While Mainfreight’s Asian growth has been prudent as we find our feet in the largest freight market in the world, our desire is to increase our level of activity to and from Asia over the next five years.
Our interests in developing further joint ventures in Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are further enhanced as the industry consolidates, through mergers and acquisitions. As with our existing Asian interests, partnerships are at times more suitable than 100% ownership.
Mainfreight Group is committed to investing in giving our team members the skills they need to meet both our customers’ expectations and to contribute to the ongoing development of business. Every team member now attends a week-long course at the Mainfreight Training Academy to ensure that the skills and values of Mainfreight are understood and applied.
Leadership courses have also been developed for our current management and potential branch managers, providing our business with a ready supply of talented branch managers to help facilitate our growth and building on our philosophy of internal promotion to strengthen our culture and development.
Capital expenditure can be classified into three divisions – property and buildings, information technology and general, including plant and equipment.
IT expenditure decisions are based on improving ongoing operational and administrative efficiencies and the ability to further enhance our competitive advantages within the market, including adding further value to our customer relationships and their supply chain requirements.
It is not our desire to be an owner of trucks and associated equipment and although some trucks are purchased for short-term initiatives, once these are viable for owner-operators, they are transferred.